Mentally ill young people's lives at risk because of Coalition cuts, says charity

Rethink Mental Illness said early intervention in psychosis services are struggling to survive across England (PA)

Young people suffering from the early stages of psychosis are not getting potentially lifesaving help because of cuts that have left some areas completely bereft of early intervention services.

The charity Rethink Mental Illness said that cuts were creating a “lost generation” of young people. The majority of Early Intervention in Psychosis (EIP) services said that their care provision had decreased and that they have cut jobs in the past year. Half of all EIP services in England have faced cuts, some by as much as 20 per cent, the charity said.

In a second report outlining the scale of the crisis affecting England’s mental health services, which have been vulnerable to both NHS efficiency savings and cuts to social care spending by local authorities, the charity Mind said today that 30,000 people with mental health problems had lost their social care since 2005. Cuts to local government budgets imposed by the Coalition have led to a £90 million shortfall in mental health social care funding, the charity reported.

Meanwhile a lack of bed availability on mental health wards has led to a steep rise in the number of young mental health patients forced to stay on adult wards, official data revealed yesterday. The Health and Social Care Information Centre said that 250 under 18s in England had been cared for on adult wards between April and November 2013 - more than in the whole year 2012/13.